Ecodesign Directive 2.0 - From Energy Efficiency to Resource Efficiency

In recent years, there has been considerable focus on reducing the energy consumption of electrical and electronic products. It is however globally recognized that the focus on energy needs to be expanded towards a broader understanding of resources. Due to increasing amounts of waste and issues related to resource scarcity there is a need for developing and establishing internationally harmonized guidelines for resource management of energy-related products. The Ecodesign Directive has the potential to set requirements to the entire life cycle of a product, and thus ensure minimum standards for also resource efficiency. The objective of this project is to develop specific and generic requirements for resource efficiency, and examine how they can be implemented and enforced within the framework of the Ecodesign Directive and its Implementing Measures and Voluntary Agreements.
Joint Research Centre has already examined how resource efficiency and waste management criteria can be implemented in the implementing Measures under the Ecodesign Directive. The project will build on their work and further develop it. In collaboration with producers, possible requirements for resource efficiency will be tested to examine how these proposals would work in practice and which obstacles and challenges there might be. The project will define requirements at a general level and at a product level, and it will identify possible methods to enforce these requirements.